Once upon a time 7 years ago, i locked up my flat in Camden Town, London, put the keys through the door, hopped on a plane landing in exile in the Kingdom of Kerry, Republic of Ireland. No longer could i pay tax to the British government in good conscience and no longer would i bow to a bloodline. Dramatic for sure, just like the weather in the Kingdom. If i had left the day before the flight would have been diverted to Dublin due to Storm Darwin (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/storm-leaves-trail-of-destruction-in-kerry-1.1689443). My plan was to move to an old cottage with no electricity with so many problems that the solicitor made me sign a disclaimer that i understood it was his advice that i do not buy this property. But I was swept away by it’s magical promise, like the land of the faraway tree, a return to childhood, to the land, to a place which had always felt safe to me and somewhere…. either in ancient soul or spirit or an unaccessible ancestral brain memory I was returning to a place I had lived before. I would never be ‘of the soil’ to the Irish but strive to be part of it’s soul. As soon as i landed the master goithe (mighty winds) swept me up and have been tumbling around ever since, never knowing for sure what a day might bring and learning new things constantly.
Growing up in the Zimbabwean War, watching a nation traumatised, bewitched by a consciousness that our skin colour allowed us privilege from birth, I became critical of authority at a young age. No church, teacher, parent or government had taught me what apartheid was and when I saw it clearly aged 18, I could no longer trust any institution and decided to make my own mind up about things from now on. I stopped eating animals that day and ran away to London to chase music around and made friends and a life with plenty of ups and downs for 20 years. The attack on Afghanistan shocked me. That our tax money enabled an attack on a country because of ‘911’ when 15 of the hijackers were Saudi Arabian, our friend and customer whom we sell endless arms to, well the hypocrisy stank. And it still does – arn’t you fed up with requests for support for the people of Yemen whilst the UK/USA continue to profit from the bombs dropped on them, the people remain passive, little media or public objection or boycott. Protest after protest failed to stop the war machine, failed to feed to world, failed to respect planet earth and so it remains. Being Zimbabwean usually means we don’t waste anything, everything is reused and was a very active challenger of laws, institutions and bureaucracies that failed to ever stop the plastic tsunami and the waste that they accepted and indeed, prescribed. Was baffled by the thought that somehow baby Prince George was in anyway somehow more important than my god daughter Amber and that culture dictated that we bow down bloodlines. Working 9-5 for 25 years had me weeping for freedom at my desk on a Friday afternoon. I had had enough of war, waste, crowns, greed and the rat race and leapt across the Irish sea to Ireland to spend the rest of my days in a garden dedicated to the young, to peace and to nature.
That was 7 years ago. Today there has been a mighty storm blowing for 2 days and will spend a bit longer in bed. In this covid world I am very grateful to have followed my heart and be in a place so rich in weather, beauty and fertility where no mask is needed. For the 7th year we wish to transform ideas into reality – Inse na Scarty means business. The greed of big business…. the censorship of debate… the fear of death resulting in stopping life, community, dancing, weddings, funerals… the speed that people take a side or make judgements and ‘delete’ is extraordinary… making little sense. Systems need to be challenged. The economic system for instance, the one that means if you have billions you get billions more – the central banks print money for banks and big business at zero interest rates so they can feed off the loans to the masses and they get squeezed… whilst profiting from investments in the Military Industrial war machine, toxic Monsatan products and indeed pharmaceuticals whilst lobbying for laws that allow their wasteful products, created to break after a certain time, yet never seem to have their insatiable greed satisfied.
This is why we like the philosophy of Bitcoin. Created after the 2008 crash in protest at once again governments around the world bailed out their banks and businesses and threw the people to the wolves. Its confusing but has fascinated me after watching Zimbabwean Dollar collapse a few times. In short, there is a finite amount of bitcoins – you cannot just print more – they are independent of governments and banks but still have to follow their laws unfortunately. HSBC for instance profits heavily from illegal drugs (Mexico), war, Monsanto chemicals etc yet just recently decided to ban bitcoin – why? If we are going to have a chance at challenging the financial corrupt giants bitcoin will be part of it. In my experience people are only really interested in things if they have a stake in it, a bet on the game. If you want to learn about bitcoin but don’t want to invest anything, contact me and will send you some to learn with. I see it as sowing seeds. The more people invested in bitcoin (along with the environment) the more power it has.
Today my words are unedited. This is an exercise and challenge for myself only. To learn the discipline of writing once a week, documenting my 7th year with a post 2020 vision and into the unknown challenges and opportunities of 2021. This year we hope to add the upstairs area so there will be 3 ensuite bedrooms to generate a good income whilst we live in the studio. We hope to root the Thousand Trees Project. This is essentially different projects sharing the ethos of small environmental, creative, ethical ‘Trees’ to unite to recruit employees (web designers, accountants, social media, lawyer, insurance, computers, gardeners etc) for common use. Self sufficient trees with our roots connected. Being powerful. A louder voice to challenge corrupt and outdated systems. And of course will be adding plants to the garden throughout the year in anticipation of a small (pretty much) organic bee farm, attracting wildlife. Most importantly is developing the online and actual classes and opening the gardens as a essential therapy for anyone who needs a safe, sane space to walk around an isolated garden without a mask – like special needs, mental health issues and children. Wishing us all the best of Irish Luck!
Inse Na Scairte 